I like cooking and I like to relax at home by cooking a nice meal in the evening (when not destressing on my bike). I always cook my curries (standard style and occasionally new recipes from various books) from scratch (being doing it for years) – often with the std onion, garlic and ginger base – blended. Fry concocted spice blend (usually turmeric, corriander seed and cumin + others including cinnamon and cloves and assoefedida) with meat and then stir in either yoghurt or chopped tomato or keep it dry +/- coconut and chilli.

Anyone else the same. It is soo much better than shop bought sauces or most tak aways. If not try it?

Yes all the time. In fact I never buy any pre-prepared food or meals. Everything cooked from scratch.

i always do my own from scratch. I like to marinate my chicken over night it greek yogurt with garlic and ginger then frying up all the spices i fancy using with the onions then bang it all together and a tin of tomatoes and simmer for a few hours whack in fresh corriander just before yum yum time 🙂

Yes, ' course. In fact, ought to start some aloo gobi now.

I do but, if I haven't got the time, I use Anila's curry sauces which I tried for the first time a few months ago…very nice but quite expensive and not available from many places

i love to cook curries from scratch as i have no graet talent in the kitchen but i love to cook and i really believe they taste so much better than the packaged curries.

Yum….Tho not got the hang of garlic naan yet 😯

I love to eat curries cooked from scratch, not much of a cook myself though.

Use to al the time but not for ages now, just started using Rick Stein's new book on Asian cooking there's some cracking recipes in there.

I cook mine from scratch too, not too good at winging them as i end up with a few too many spices! Gots LOADS of cooking books at my parents so I just steal those and follow a recipe!

I tried the method of boiling onions, ginger and garlic but it stank the whole house out. Recently came across a Jamie Oliver recipe for a vindaloo, which is really a madras-strength, and it's the best homemade I've tasted – as close to curry house flavour as I've got.

I just did a search for it online but can't find it. It's in one of his books.

Just simmering my Foxyrider special – tis a chillic hot one tonight – hope my wife doesn't mind 😳 – Cook my basmati rice till al dente' then strain and leave to steam and dry in the steamer with the lid on. I must admid although I like to make naan I do buy it 😳

RS – wanna come over – near to Exeter 😉 tis just about to be served 😉

mrs TLR is a fanatical cook, and i'm a fanatical eater…….

everything from scratch, no exceptions 😀

foxyrider, i'll just jump on the plane, should be there in around 12 hours or so, keep it warm for me 😀

i did one other day actually with chick peas garden peas and corn and potatoes just raided the cupboard lol it was great 🙂

Yes, as my gf is NZ-born but of (gujarati) indian parents she has a head full of recipies but with no quantities – she just knows how much is right. I'm not bad at making chapattis from scratch these days – we make bhajis (usually spinach-based) and samosas which are great too, just too faffy in small quantities.

Lots have quite similar bases so get that right and you're set. There's no one "indian" style of cooking though, the different areas in India can have completely different methods and blends of spices.

Just steer clear of the sauces, for the cost of a couple of jars of sauce you could equip yourself with the spices to make dozens of them very cheaply.

Top tip for indian (and not-indian) cooking: at the frozen section in the supermarket, look in the Asian bit – where you can usually find frozen garlic and ginger in nice easy-to-use cubes. Much more convenient than chopping a currys-worth every time, and makes it far easier to make a curry with leftovers rather than having to buy in ingredients.

Frozen garlic and ginger?

We always have them on fresh and takes less than a minute to prepare them.

Curry, Done! Tis lovely but maybe a bit spicy for my Wife who has her mouth open inhailing cold air at the moment! 😳

I do cut my ginger into cubes and freeze them so it lasts longer and is quicker!

Freezing ginger, thats a great idea! I like making a good chilli con carne too. mmmm want curry now!

We always cook our meals from scratch as mrs carlos has quite a few intolerances.

Our all time favourite curry cookbook is 'an indian houswifes recipe book'
by Laxmi Khurana. The food that has come out of this book is simply amazing.
link above.Thanks for the heads up on freezing ginger , garlic doesn't need freezing in this house we go through about 4 heads a week.

This is a good recipe: Lamb with green chillies. Anjum's book is good, too.

I use the recipes off curryfrenzy.com as a start and have slowly expanded them into what could be loosely called a repertoire ! The base sauce they use is quite handy.
The recipe for Korma on that site is lush, i thought it would come out awful but it tastes amazing.

Yes, though I'm not very versatile. Can only really do a tomatoey one and a coconut milk and tamarindy one.

I think there must be a lot of oil in shop-bought and restaurant ones, as mine are never anything like the same texture.

i don't think i have ever made a curry using a ready-made sauce, or indeed eaten such a thing.
being vegan means it's pretty much a necessity to know how to make meals from scratch, and curries are among the simplest (and best) to do.
a couple of days ago i made a spinach and yellow split pea dhal, using fresh spinach from mr and mrs nbt's garden (it was given to me after a ride on sunday, i didn't nick it!)..

Yup.
Many years ago (20-odd) I bought a cookbook by/compiled by Khalid Aziz – a newscaster in more recent years (and probably at the time). Some good recipes in there, everything from scratch.
Even includes lime pickle, tho' a jar sat on the window doesn't break down anything like as well as in Indian or Pakistan, as I found after a few months or waiting..smelt bloomin' great tho' !

http://www.marywardbooks.com/books/The-Encyclopedia-of-Indian-Cooking-by-Khalid-Aziz/0850510806.htm

When I moved into my own flat, I did the usual bloke thing of buying microwave meals. That lasted two days – I hate eating crap food. Sister gave me a Chinese and Indian cook books as a flat warming present at the time and I picked up from there. Now years later, I have a cupboard full of spices and even my wife tries her hand cooking a curry from scratch.
Can't beat the spice aroma that hangs for a couple of hours afterwards.

I also use my breadmaker to do my own naan. works well and so fresh but I bet you are all thinking I'm cheating.

I make my own curries from scratch…then bung a jar of sauce aswell. Using a ready made sauce aswell reduces the smug factor 🙂 but the results are rather good.

I also use my breadmaker to do my own naan

– good idea – I think I might make a batch of naans and cook tehm and then freeze them – prob much cheaper than the sainsburys one i.e. £1 for 2 at least!

Yes. Jamie Oliver's 'Pete's Lamb Curry' from his 1st or 2nd back is an old favourite. Madhur Jaffrey's Lamb with Spinach is currenty 1st place. It blows me away every time.

can someone post up a good balti recipe???

thanks in advance…

I do all the time, in fact we don't buy any "convenience" food at all.

Always cook from scratch using fresh spices. Not only does it taste much better, but you get a huge variation in tastes and styles that are impossible to get any other way.

I use two books that have every style you could possibly want:
50 Great Curries of the World – Camellia Panjabi
Curry – various contributors – ISBN 13 978 1 4053 1572 2

We get lots of pheasant during the season – fantastic meat for curry. A bit like chicken but stronger flavour, denser and has very little fat

yes.

Yes, well I say yes but mrdomino is the curry chef in our house. He has made batches of sauce and frozen some so that we can just cook the meat and vegetables and add the sauce. Often we make too much and freeze the leftovers so we do have ready meals of sorts, useful for when ou get back from a ride. He made up his own bombay potato recipe last night, just what I needed when I got home from my ride.

Gilles, I've never thought of using our breadmaker for naans – have you got the recipe handy?

TVM

SM

i love making curry although it does stink the flat out for a while. I use Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible – loads of different currys from all over the world. They seem particularly rich in this recipe book…mmmm curry

I keep meaning to make up some curry pastes, and then freeze them. Anyone tried doing that?

This forum has some excellent recipes with base sauces to use pretty much covers them all.

http://indian-recipe.org/curryforum/index.php

I keep meaning to make up some curry pastes, and then freeze them. Anyone tried doing that?

I have done this with thai green curry paste – mince up garlic, lemongrass and corriander, fish sauce etc and tehn freeze it 🙂

Yup, love cooking curry. Its always so much better from scratch. You name it, I'll curry it.